Rebels release train carrying bodies from downed jetliner

Tuesday

Jul 22, 2014 at 12:01 AMJul 22, 2014 at 11:58 AM

HRABOVE, Ukraine - Bowing to international pressure yesterday, pro-Russia separatists released a train packed with bodies and handed over the black boxes from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane, four days after it plunged into rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

HRABOVE, Ukraine — Bowing to international pressure yesterday, pro-Russia separatists released a train packed with bodies and handed over the black boxes from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane, four days after it plunged into rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

With body parts decaying in sweltering heat and signs that evidence at the crash site was mishandled, anger in Western capitals has mounted at the rebels and their allies in Moscow.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it saw no evidence a missile was fired and denied involvement in the downing of Flight 17 — and suggested the Ukrainian military was at fault. President Vladimir Putin spoke out but showed no sign of abandoning the separatists.

But a piece of wreckage from the plane bears telltale marks of small pieces of high-velocity shrapnel that apparently crippled the jet in flight. Riddled with these perforations and buffeted by a blast wave as it flew, the plane then most likely sheared apart.

The wreckage, photographed by two reporters for The New York Times, suggests that the destruction of the aircraft was caused by a supersonic missile that apparently exploded near the jet as it flew 33,000 feet above the ground, according to an analysis of the photographs by IHS Jane’s, the defense consultancy.

The damage, including the shrapnel holes and blistered paint on a panel of the destroyed plane’s exterior, is consistent with the effects of a fragmenting warhead carried by an SA-11 missile, known in Russian as a Buk.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama accused the rebels of tampering with evidence and insulting victims’ families, warning of new sanctions. Europeans will consider their own sanctions today.

The bodies of the 298 victims could hold evidence of what brought the plane down on Thursday as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Grief turned to anger as families begged to get the bodies of their loved ones back.

“Bodies are just lying there for three days in the hot sun. There are people who have this on their conscience,” said Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son, Bryce, and his girlfriend, Daisy Oehlers, died.

International forensics experts finally gained access to the crash site yesterday.

The team stumbled across remains that had not yet been removed and inspected the perished passengers’ luggage.

In Torez, a rebel-held town 9 miles from the crash site, inspectors bowed heads and clasped hands before climbing aboard refrigerated train cars holding the collected bodies.

The smell of decay was overwhelming. Workers wore masks, while passersby twisted their faces in horror at the odor. Temperatures hit 84 degrees, and a train engineer said that a power failure had hit the refrigeration system overnight.

The rebels in Torez did not appear too conciliatory as the tense day wore on. They repeatedly tried to block reporters from access to the visiting experts.

Late yesterday, trucks arrived at the Torez station with plastic bags apparently filled with body parts, as well as piles of luggage.

Ukrainian authorities said the total number of bodies recovered was 282.

Dutch investigators demanded the separatists transfer the bodies immediately, and the rebels complied.

With a long whistle and puff of smoke, the train bearing the bodies pulled slowly out of the station. Rebels holding automatic rifles walked alongside as it chugged away.

It was headed through troubled territory, its destination not 100 percent clear.

The rebels handed over both black boxes from Flight 17 to Malaysian investigators in Ukraine later yesterday.

A team of international observers at the sprawling crash site described strange behavior by workers. “When we were leaving, we observed workers there hacking into the fuselage with gas-powered equipment,” Michael Bociurkiw, of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said.

He said there was no security perimeter yesterday at one of the bigger debris fields, and monitors saw that one of the largest pieces of the plane “had somewhat been split or moved apart."

In Washington, Obama asked, “What exactly are they trying to hide? This is an insult to those who have lost loved ones. This is the kind of behavior that has no place in the community of nations.”

On Sunday, the U.S. said there was “powerful” evidence that the rebels had shot down the plane with a Russian surface-to-air missile, including video of a rocket launcher — one surface-to-air missile missing — being driven away from the likely launch site; imagery showing the firing; phone calls claiming credit for the missile strike, and phone recordings said to reveal a cover-up at the crash site.

Information from The New York Times was included in this story.

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